Bad Dog – Now Up On Amazon

  

You will die like a dog for no good reason.

—Ernest Hemingway

Story Summary

In 2071, Sergeant Tachikoma leads a Marine combat armor squad. She knows the Corps never promised her a rose garden, only the chance to fight for her country.

Now, she faces her greatest challenge, two terrifying alien pillars that trapped her into reliving the same day again. The day she dies.

Today, she needs every ounce of courage to save her people from annihilation.

Based on cutting-edge theories on the nature of the universe, this white knuckle military SF thriller contains drama and mystery.

“This story is great, with a very firm grasp of the Marine Corps lifestyle.”


– Sgt D. Barrow, USMC

More About The Author

Buy This Book

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon DE
Amazon FR
Amazon AU

More About The Story

I ended up writing a military SF story as my debut novel quite by happenstance. I was writing another story, just before Christmas 2012, when a phrase popped into my head, It's all Big Dog's fault that I died yesterday under a mountain in Afghanistan. I wrote the phrase down, and put it to one-side, so I could carry on with my other novel.

My good intentions didn't go as planned.


The ideas encapsulated in that sentence wouldn't leave me alone. It kept nagging at me. The idea literally forced me to start writing a new novel, driving me to run with the random phrase, morphing more and more ideas, until I ended up with creating the Bad Dog novel you are reading now.


But one thing became obvious, I wanted to write a story where the concerns of the character are driven by their desire to do their duty, and that her solutions came from military doctrine. The scope of the problem in this story is very much about tactics, but tactics are driven by doctrine and what is called the OODA loop: observe, orient, decide, and act. The decision cycle was developed by the military strategist Colonel John Boyd of the United Staes Air Force. Boyd applied the concept to the combat operations process, and the Unites States Marine Corps took his ideas to produce their book on doctrine called, Warfighting, that I talk about in this novel.

For those of you interested in the science behind Bad Dog you'll all have to thank Professor Max Tegmark, for his ideas about us all living in a mathematical based multiverse, and Professor't Hooft for developing the idea about living in a holographic universe. Both of these men were the inspiration behind the pillars and how they work. Any mistakes in the physics are of course attributable only to me.


Ashley R Pollard

London, UK

January 2018
   

Christmas Dr Who

  

Capaldi got a great send off with this year's Dr Who Christmas Special. Hard to fault really, unless one is a pedant, outraged geek or nerd, or one of the ill-informed, snobbish, literary elite that writes reviews. I can forgive pedants, I understand geeks and nerds, but those who look down their noses at SF as inferior, can all go swivel.

Looking forward to seeing what Jodie Whittaker brings to the show, but she's not the 13th Doctor regardless of what reviewers say. Whittaker is the 14th Doctor: Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, Davidson, the other Baker, McCoy, McGann, Hurt, Eccleston, Tennant, Smith, Capaldi, and Whittaker.

And if you say Hurt was the War Doctor, I will say that this Christmas Special put that one to rest, with the allusion to all of them being the War Doctor, because the Doctor is the one who goes and tends to wars. So, it still adds up to 14. 

  

Count them, 14. Outraged I tell you, outraged! Of course, this only matters to the geeks and nerds.

  

Christmas 2017

The tree is up just in time for Christmas. I can truthfully say that there is little in the way of wargaming goodies under the tree this year, primarily down to having to sacrifice a lot of my hobby time for my writing. But weep not, I did get my Jovian Wars KickStarter, and I'm not short of a few shiny things to make and paint. Short of time, but not stuff.

And that I thinks sums up the year. Not enough time to everything I want or need to do.

So, let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas or other suitable salutation for this winter holiday, where I shall be taking some time out to work on the models on my bench.
  

Chinese ZTZ-169C

As you can all guess, with Terror Tree now out, tanks, especially large tanks, have been on my mind.

These are old Ral Partha Demolisher tanks from the original FASA BattleTech miniatures range.  Back in the day, when I was young, I bought one, which despite my best efforts to shed stuff over the years I still have.  It's the one at the back.

Over the past few years I acquired two more, which were originally bought to be turned into cybertanks for Ogre/GEV.  But I have a shed ton of Ogre cybertanks, so they've become surplus to requirements.

Since then, I've been of two minds about what to do with them. 

As a BattleTech tank, it really is way too big to use, if you agree that the battlemech models are accurate 1/300th scale representations.  If on the other hand, like me, you're in the habit of using the Dark Age Mech Warrior infantry for your BattleTech games, because they look better, then these Demolishers do look the business.

They would also make a reasonable 15mm, nominal 1/100th scale tanks too.  So, decisions, decisions.

After much thought, I've decided to use them as part of my ongoing Bad Dog project, as I want some tank to support my Chinese All Terrain Suits, and I've given them the designation ZTZ-169C.  I think that the Demolisher looks pretty good next to these Chinese All Terrain Suits I made.  Big without being too big, and one can rationalize the treads as independent electric drive units.

So time to strip the two partly painted models and reassemble them.
  

Terror Tree - Now Available

  

War is the father of us all, king of all. Some it makes gods, some it makes men, some it makes slaves, some free.

– Heraclitis

Blurb

Imagine a future where humans face Artificial Intelligence systems controlling the machines of war.

This is a science fiction short story that asks the question: What if this goes on?

Includes chapter one of the forthcoming novel Bad Dog.

More About The Author

Buy This book

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon DE

Amazon FR

Amazon AU

  

Second Heavy Gear Blitz KickStarter

After a month's delay to fulfill their Jovian Wars KickStarter, Dream Pod 9 have announced a launch date for their Heavy Gear Blitz expansion. I understand it will be in the next couple of days.  If you've not been following their FaceBook page I recommend looking at some of the renders they've been posting, and the tease for the Gilgamesh tank looks really interesting.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely I can pledge due to my other financial commitment, namely publishing Bad Dog.  But if I could I would, so check it out.
  

Bad Dog Finished Art

  

Here's the artwork for Bad Dog.
  

Third World Future Tank

These models are from the Takara micro-tank range.  They're a 1/144th scale Russian T95s, more properly called Object 195, because it never reached production status, as it was cancelled in 2010 due to budget problems.

Given that Russian tanks have a look to them, my idea was to use this model as the basis for a near future Third World tank, if only because it's an easy way of plonking something down on the table for a game.

Of course saying that means I'll probably want to customize these a bit, to jazz them up and make them look more futuristic.  Haven't decided what this will entail yet, but you know me, when I do I will post pictures.
  

Bad Dog

I've made the decision that I'm too old to waste any more of my life waiting for replies from traditional publishing houses about my novel.  It has been two years, with one reply back, which was promising but, as they say, close but no cigar.  The thought of waiting another two years to not hear back from editors who requested to see my work, or getting a nice rejection, because no one understands how to sell my work, is not on.

So, I have a choice.  Give up or self-publish.

The answer is, never give up, never surrender.

This picture is by the talented artist Elartwyne Estole whose work can be seen here.  I asked him to do a cover, and he came up with this sketch, which I think is awesome.  The current plan is to have Bad Dog out by January the first 2018.

We shall see how the plan survives contact with reality in due course.

PS: You can follow my writing site here.
  

Making Life Multiplanetary

Call me a starry eyed dreamer, but this was what Heinlein wrote about when I was a kid.  I've waited all my life to see mankind go back to visiting other planets.

Made me emotional to watch this, so good I've posted this on both blogs.
   

SJG Ogre Miniatures Wargame

 

This piece is going to be a criticism of the Ogre Miniatures wargaming rules by Steve Jackson Games.  If you've followed my blog for any length of time it should be obvious that I have played a fair few game of Ogre/GEV, and have a sizeable collection of the miniatures.

The picture above is proof of that.

Let me start by stating the obvious, the board-game is a classic.  Now that has been said let me explain what makes the rules for playing using the miniatures less than a fully satisfying miniatures playing experience.

It's quite simple really, the photo above is almost the perfect illustration of the problem–range to move ratio.  It doesn't matter what ground-scale conversion one uses: one inch to the hex, two inches, three or even four the problem remains, and the larger you go just makes other things more difficult too, like the size of the table need to play on.

In Ogre, units move one to four or more hexes per turn.  The range of the weapons is one to three hexes, with specials like howitzers being an exception, and cruise missiles of course, which in my experience are scenario specific.  Also, in Ogre terrain blocks, as in costs movement points to cross, but line-of-sight is is irrelevant to targeting an opponent, as it is abstracted as a defence bonus.

So what's the problem?

When the distance you can move a unit is as great or greater than the range you can shoot, what you have is a high level (more abstract) game, and miniature wargaming tends towards a lower level (less abstract) game.  The move to range ratio is a big issue here, because it just doesn't give the feel of a miniatures game.

As a player of miniature wargames I want tactical problems arising from terrain blocking line-of-sight and manoeuvre, which is why I use my miniatures as tokens on a hex map board.
  

Reflections & Musings

 

The last couple of months I've been out and about, mostly doing archery, and having fun in the sun.  I know, I know, not the typical wargamer pursuit.  I've also been taking the time to read a bunch of books from my to be read pile.  I've been putting up reviews over on my writing blog.

I picked-up a golden oldie, Larry Bond's Cauldron, which I've just finished reading, a story that runs to nearly 700 pages, which has given me lots of ideas.  But, more importantly as a writer, it gave me pause for thought about story presentation.  Things like staring in media res, in the middle of the action, or in this case not so much.  Cauldron is definitely a slow burn novel with occasional flashes of action to spice up the plot.

Of course the book is a bit dated, being written in 1993, set in 1997.  It's a yesterday's future of tomorrow, which despite being wildly out on its predictions, still manages to be relevant to today's political turmoil.  And by that I mean Brexit, and what that means for the future of Europe.

If you haven't read Cauldron I can recommend it, there are some nice ideas for post Cold War gone hot scenarios with Franco-German attackers facing Polish and Hungarian defenders, with the aid of American and British forces.  Maybe not totally plausible, as I find it hard to imagine the Germans going on the offensive with the French, but if you roll with it there's a lot of fun to be had.

Besides reading, I've been thinking.

Mostly around what needs to be done to lick my novels into shape.  This has been a bit of a slog, and at one point I was pretty sick and tired of my trilogy.  However, as I get closer to finishing the third book to go out to Beta readers, revise the second after been through the Beta readers, I have found myself looking forward to starting the next book in the series.

Shock, horror, probe I was lying in my bath listening to the soundtrack to the first Conan movie and ideas for two scenes just came to me.  Just like that.  Ideas for a mission to set the characters against formed, but whilst I have a theme, or more correctly I have some themes I can choose from, the plot as such remains elusive.

Got to have a plot, so I'm thinking about that.

This is long way of saying that post here will be a bit thin until I find some time between tapping on the keyboard to paint stuff.  Don't worry I'm not abandoning the blog, if for the simple reason my own setting generates ideas for making forces, which I then have to make and paint.  And I have so much stuff to make and paint.
  

Spartan Games: Game Over Man

  

 

Shocking news, Spartan Games are going out of business.  As an outsider they always seemed to be doing so well, what with the Halo game and all.  But reading the announcement here, it's obvious they over extended themselves.  I quote what I  think is the relevant section:

However, despite this it continued to encounter challenging trading conditions and it became clear this month that the company could not continue to service its liabilities, particularly given the burden imposed by the amounts owing to finance companies.

So that's three of their lines going down plus the 15mm Halo game.  And I was only looking at the Halo stuff the other week thinking about what might be useful to buy for my own gaming needs.

I wish all the staff the  very best in this difficult time for them.
  

Gencon BattleTech

  

Over on the BattleTech Facebook page there is announcement about new products from Catalyst Games.  I pulled these four pictures from their post to spread the word.  The one above shows the new box set that will have eight mechs; new plastic designs.  What is of interest to me is the return of William H. Keith to the BattleTech fold with fiction by him called the Golden Rule.

Colour me impressed, as he's my favourite BattleTech author because he had a vision of the universe that resonated with me.  In fact at one point I seriously thought about writing a fan fiction novel based on his Gray Death trilogy, but based from the other side, seeing the story through the eyes of Duke Ricol and his subordinates.

You can read a scene I wrote here.

The back of the box lists the contents.

Next up is a beginners box set with only two mechs at slightly less that half the price of the big box.

I think this is a pretty astute marketing move as $60 is a pretty big chunk of change to slap down for a game.

And the last shot is of the contents.

I'm not quite sure where I stand on buying these for myself, because truly I have more mechs stacked away for a rainy day than you can shake a big stick at.  But I hope I can get a copy of the fiction book, because I'm a big fan of Keith's writing.
  

On My Work Bench

When I'm not out shooting pointy sticks at round things (you've seen the post on archery I did earlier) I've been using Milliput to make a new part for my RAFM Cheetah.  While waiting for the Milliput to harden I thought to distract myself with something else, as I just wanted to sit at my bench and fiddle with stuff. 

I could've done some painting, but conditions are not ideal as the summer heat makes the paint dry faster, which I find rather annoying.  My excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

Anyway, I delved into my stash of Heavy Gear miniatures, and sorted out all the pieces to convert them into combat armour for use in my own Bad Dog universe setting.  So, the above picture shows two combat armour suits nearly finished being assembles, and five more with all the parts sorted out for me to proceed to the next stage.

It was fun, even if it was a distraction from finishing other projects.  A wargamers curse of unfinished projects that build up from being distracted by shiny things.
  

Archery Update

Me with members of my club shooting at a competition together, and clearly we are the rabble because none of us are wearing club shirts (left-to-right, Reg, Tom, me, and Lazlo).

It has been a year since I did the last post here on archery, and it has been an interesting year of shooting that would probably bore you all to tears if I went into the finer details of how to shoot an arrow.

I have not only achieved my first class archery award, but also bowman, which is as high as I can go unless I start attending record status shoots.  Quite frankly I'm not sure I have the energy and commitment to do this.  For a start it would mean travelling around the country to get to enough events to be able to shoot three or more rounds, while getting enough points to qualify, and then having to do it all again the next year.

Also, I have had to change my arrows again because my draw length increased.  The nice arrows I had borrowed from my beloved had become too short for me, and as a consequence hazardous to use–accidents can happen if you pull the arrow off the rest and let it loose. The longer arrows we had to hand are too stiff for me, and as a result my scores have dropped precipitously because I've lost confidence in them.

After much deliberation and worry an order was placed with Merlin Archery, and in due course the package arrived with the parts to make up a  set of ten arrows.  My first ever set of brand new arrows that I've bought, which are not hand-me-downs or secondhand acquisitions.

Thirty inches long, they're like rails that go on forever.

  
Having now used them, and with help from Sailesh, my club coach, I've been able to tune my bow to match them and I'm hopeful I will be able to improve my scores.
   

RAFM Cheetah WIP

This is picture is of the pre-loved and slightly tatty Cheetah I got off eBay, which was sans butt-plate.  As luck would have it I could find no pictures on the web of the Cheetah taken from the rear.  Fortunately, I have friends who have complete Cheetahs to send me pictures of what the butt-plate should look like.

However, as luck would have it–or not, as luck only involved winning an eBay listing–I managed to buy a Whitecat.  This has the same V-motor butt-plate as the Cheetah, so I am now using this as a template to fabricate a replacement for my model.

I started by bending up a bit of wire to make a frame for the Milliput butt-plate.  Then I added the Milliput and moulded it into the rough shape I needed.  Still a bit of shaping and carving yet to do, but it has been far too nice to be sitting indoors making toy soldiers to finish the job.

And here's the cleaned up Cheetah awaiting assembly.

   
So, more updates to come, but now it's time to go off and shoot pointy sticks at round things: archery being lots more fun to do when the weather is nice.
  

Hammers & Nails

  

 

I caught a link to a YouTube video, which I happened to have time to watch, which is not normally the case, where it ended by asking the following question:

"At what point do you want to become an advocate and a demo person for the game, for very little to no benefit?"

It's a good question, been there and done that too.  My answer is–it depends.

What interested me about the future of Wargaming Demo Teams piece was that any answer will also depend on where you come from.  Clearly the person who is discussing this comes from a different place from me, as do a large number of the commentators who left their opinions on the video

My impression is that most think one should be paid for hours demonstrating a manufacturers game, with the details of the payment being up to the company.  Ultimately, it's a decision the demonstrators makes if they agree to the company's offer.

A separate question of does this make the person who is demonstrating a game an employee,  is probably subject to what classes as employment under the law of the land.

My question is, when did it become an expectation to be paid to do a hobby?  Because for the life of me a hobby is something you do for fun rather than it being work, because work is not spelt F.U.N. Call me an old fogey.  And yes I've been a demo agent and got perks for demoing games for the company, but I did it not for the perks, but because I loved the game I was demoing.

And as for the perks, quite frankly not worth the time and effort I put into preparing the games, and at one level were a total insult since the terms and conditions of said perks meant I largely had nothing I wanted to use them on.

I consoled myself that it encouraged me to do something I already enjoyed.  And the the company decided that they didn't want me to demo games with the miniatures I had, I stopped.  No regrets, despite some gnashing of teeth over what I see as the shortsightedness of the decision.

But you know, not once did it even cross my mind that I was an employee of the company.
   

RAFM Mambas

Until recently I only had two Mambas.  One a brawler variant and the other was less than complete: no head and engine.  Now I have two more: a Black Mamba and a Snake Eye Mamba.  So, it looks like I have the elements of support squad.

Having taken the above pictures, because pictures are proof, you will have to take it on trust that I find I now have a shoe box size box full of Heavy Gear miniatures.  I am blessed, and clearly going to live forever, because that's how long it will take me to assemble and paint all of my acquisitions at the rate I work.

PS: It has been hot this week and I've felt drained by the heat, which must be a sign of something, like the need to be on a beach enjoying the sun, going for a swim in the cool sea, and afterwards having a cool drink.
  

Some More Size Comparisons

Didn't realize that two of the little Dogs had broken arms, they're that tiny, but you can see it in the picture.

Back here I took some pictures of GZGs not VOTOMS, but I was asked if I could take a picture showing them next to other mecha.  Hopefully, people will now be able to see the relative sizes of GZG Dogs, Heavy Gear and BattleTech mechs.

NB: If you compare the old pictures of the little Dogs to this new one the increase in quality between my old camera and my new one is quite remarkable.
 

Northern Guard Painting WIP

And this weekend I managed to slap some paint on my Northern Guard Gears.  Still a long way to go, but I'm one colour application closer to finishing.

The Jaguar on the left has had the main green shaded, while the Hunter on the right has had the arms painted the rest remains to be done.  I really want to get my Northern Guard squad done, but unfortunately, with the nicer weather I've been going out more, mostly to shoot arrows in archery competitions, so the painting has been put on the back burner for the time being.
  

Two X-Wing Battles: The Kittens Strike Back

Allan moving his Academy pilot forward at the beginning of the first turn on my new space mat bought from Dark Sphere games.

We played two games of X-Wing this Saturday, which made for a very busy weekend after a morning spent shooting arrow at archery practice, and then shooting again on Sunday in our club Spring Handicap competition.  More on archery here.

Our friend Allan came around to play and have a meal, drink wine, the usual really.  He and his wife Paloma are leaving Britain for sunnier climes, though she couldn't make today because of having to finish her doctorate presentation, which was due Monday.

So, I made up two three-player scenarios, with the kittens playing the opposition and us three humans all working together to foil them, which went about as well as could be expected...

The kittens have destroyed one TIE fighter and are leading the rest on a merry chase through the asteroids.

The first scenario was based on the Millenium Falcon flying out of an asteroid belt and engaging it's stardrive to escape, loosely based on the Empire Strikes Back.  The Falcon had Han and R2 D2 aboard with homing missiles and an upgrade to allow the bucket of bolts to do barrel rolls.

It all got a bit gnarly with ships banging into each other, which worked well for the TIEs in preventing the Falcon's progress.

We each ran two of the Empire's Imperial TIEs with one average and one academy pilot each.  Points wise the Falcon was outmatched, but the kittens still managed to get their very battered and beaten ship off the table.

The kittens on the verge of victory with the TIE players (Susan) insisting the Imperials being allowed one more round of firing on the Falcon as the centre pin wasn't across the edge of the board.  Kittens still escaped though.

The second game features two X-wings escorting a Y-wing off the table.

More asteroids to fly through.

The kittens had Red Leader Garven Dreis, Red 2 Wedge Antilles, and Gold Leader Jon "Dutch" Vander facing the same motley crew of Imperial pilots: one skill four, two skill three and three skill one Academy pilots.

My two TIE fighters are bottom left and centre, and I had to turn my lead to avoid hitting the asteroid.

There was much dodging of asteroids and, the inevitable crashing into one's own ships as the Imperials struggled to gang up on the Y-wing–our victory being dependent on destroying it before it could get off the board.

A TIE fighter about about to go boom after being shot up by the kittens, and the two remaining TIEs failed to inflict any damage when returning fire.

Wedge Antilles is a total killer because his character's special ability is to reduce the enemy agility by one, and TIE fighters are a bit fragile if hit.

The kittens did a reverse turn with the X-wings and lined up on two soon to be ex-TIE fighters, which led to complaints from Susan that I was 'avoiding' the fight.

In a move that couldn't have been staged for more laughs, I managed to crash my Academy pilot into Allan's good pilot, and then crash my good pilot into my own Academy pilot, which caused my two TIE fighters to end up trailing the oncoming X-wing furball.

With the two TIE fighters destroyed the Y-wing slip quietly away after the only TIE that can shoot it fails to destroy it.

Points wise the game was very evenly matched, but the kittens managed to get the slightly battered Y-wing away and beat up the Imperials for their trouble.

Afterwards we ate a lovely roast beef dinner, which Susan had made, drank wine, and then watched Rogue One that Allan hadn't yet seen, which made a perfect end to a perfect day.  I will also say that I enjoyed Rogue One more on the second watch because I was able to just relax and let the story unfold without the niggling question of where and who is that?

NB:  For those of you reading this and not understanding the 'kittens' use in the game, they are avatars whose movement and dice are controlled by more than one of the opposition players, either in rotation or individually taking command of one ship,which makes for an interesting game.

PS: Amended title after posting.
   

Walker, Humanoid, Integrated Suit/Pilot, Engagement/Reconnaissance

  

My friend Brandon Keith Fero has launched a Kickstarter for some awesome mecha called Whispers.

You can pledge here.

At five Whispers for $50.00 these are a steal.  I'm going to pledge when I'm paid because this it too good a deal to miss out on.
  

Be Careful What You Wish For

Saturday there was no archery, so I was free to do something else instead of shooting sticks at round things.

Serendipitously, one of my MIB colleagues (Steve Jackson Game Men in Black game demonstrators)  was over from the States.  So, after an exchange of emails and messages on Facebook, we arranged for David to come around and play a game of Ogre/GEV.

I suggested we played my Escalation scenario (now subtitled: be careful what you wish for), which I had demoed around various wargame shows three years ago.  Yes, it was as long ago as that.  Running the scenario would be a good test of the game as I would be playing against someone who knew the rules rather than introducing new players to the game.  It's a bit ironic really, given I haven't played for nearly two and half years I was a bit rusty and forgetful, but David rocked.

What I learnt is that I'm going to have to think about how I word the victory conditions; mostly down to the fact that the scenario is unbalanced and is not designed to have a clear winner, but rather to demonstrate how the Last War progressed i.e.: how the GEV green map ends up turning into an orange Ogre map.

I also need to add another howitzer to the nominal attackers side, perhaps even some more infantry, and I think change the GEV mobile command post to a slower tracked mobile command post, as I think it would add more tension to the game.

And courtesy of David a picture of the start of the scenario, before things got all gnarly.

  

RAFM Even More Reinforcements

And just when you think you have enough, along comes the chance to buy more!  I couldn't resist these, especially as the bundle included spare weapon packs, which will mean I can play about with the weapon loadouts on my collection of Heavy Gears.

What's interesting, and therefore exciting, is the options this opens up to me when I assemble the next batch of Gears.  And, furthermore once I've taken a picture of it, I have one broken bazooka that has snapped in half, which is not something you see everyday.  Still, it has got me thinking about repairing it and making it into large missile launchers.

Beside that there's the two tanks, which means that I now have tanks for both my Northern Guard and Southern Milicia forces too.  Given that I didn't go to Salute again this year, this and the other eBay haul have salved my need to spend money on wargaming paraphernalia.

Enjoy.
    

Southern Army Assembles

I have scored seven Southern Jagers and one more Northern Hunter off eBay.  I've gone from not having enough models for a full squad to being able to make up two squads, which means I now have a Southern Milicia force to face my Northern Guard.  I can't begin to tell you all how insanely happy this makes me, and here I was thinking I'd never get into Heavy Gear, what with being the old BattleTech grognard that I am.

And here are the other pictures from the RAFM catalogue of Southern Gears I found online, with a list of all the models issued.  Again, those listed in bold are those I've managed to get hold of.


Jager 1300
Blitz Jager 130 


(I have two)
Black Mamba 1302
Long Fang Black Mamba 1303

Iguana 1304
Blitz Iguana 1305
Spitting Cobra 1306
Striking Cobra 1307

Stone Mason 1308

Fire Jager 1309
 


(I have two)
Snakeye Black Mamba 1310
 


(I have one coming)
Support Cobra 1311


RazorFang Black Mamba 1312

King Cobra 1313
Light Artillery 1314

Number apparently not used 1315
Standard Infantry 1316 


(not shown)
Heavy Infantry 1317 

(not shown)

Recon Infantry 1318


Sniper Infantry 1319
Chameleon 1322  

(not shown)
Barbed Fang 1323  

(not shown)
Black Box Iguana 1324 

(not shown)

Jager Recon 1325 

(not shown, but I have six)
Artillery Cobra 1326 

(not shown, but I have one)

Lidded Iguana 1327 
 

(not shown)
Spitting Mamba 1328 
 

(not shown)
Armored Jager 1329 

(not shown, but I have one)

"Azure Devils" Box 2051
 

(not shown)
Naga Strider 2054
 

(not shown)
Hun Tanks 2056 

(not shown)

So as before, I have a plan, which is to finish painting my Northern Guard before moving on to make up a squad of Southern Gears.  After that I'm thinking of going back and making up my Grizzly, Jaguar Firestarter and Mammoth Northern Gears.  I now have a box full of old RAFM Gears, a veritable lead mountain, stashed away for a rainy day.
  

On My Workbench WIP

Just a picture to show people that I am working on painting and making stuff and not just buying all the shiny off eBay that I can find.

As you can see the Visigoth tank from here has been primed and now has a coat of paint.  The three RAFM Gears are slowly being painted, while in front of them are the Dream Pod 9 Gears that I went back and slightly modified, setting back their completion.

In front are two unpainted Gears that I now have the parts to complete so they can be primed, and in centre place is my stripped and being rebuilt custom Ogre that is going to be made up as a Pan European Federation Vulcan.  Below is a close-up of my revised autocannon model for my Bad Dog Universe setting, the original long version can be seen here.

Close-up shots are brutal for showing defects.

  

RAFM More Reinforcements

I've done a bit of blitz on acquiring RAFM Heavy Gear miniatures, and these three Gears were acquired through the kindness of wargaming friends: Godfrey Sherridan for the two Recon Jagers and some essential spare parts I needed that he was willing to part with, and Adam Harrision for parting with the Flame Jager he had acquired as part of another lot.

What can I say, but thank you again guys.

Now I have one question for those who read my blog and know more about these Gears than me.

What on Earth is this spade/pole thing?